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Undergoing intense bouts of exercise for only three minutes a week may show health benefits similar to those of longer, traditional physical activity regimes, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Researchers also said short, intense exercise does not increase appetite because of its lower energy requirements compared with longer-duration activities.

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Adults older than 60 can realize significant benefits from short, intense exercise sessions, according to research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The six men and women in the study performed six-second bursts of high-intensity activity in twice-weekly sessions over six weeks. At the end of the study, they showed a reduction in blood pressure of 9% and found it easier to accomplish daily activities.

A study in Cell Transplantation found type 2 diabetes patients who received autologous bone marrow stem cells required lower insulin doses compared with those in the control group. Longer-duration studies with a larger number of participants will be needed to establish the efficacy of stem cell treatment in diabetes, researchers said.

A study in Metabolism revealed obese men with type 2 diabetes who took an isometric handgrip test showed improvements in cardiovascular health following a 16-week walking program, while their female counterparts did not attain similar results, suggesting the benefits of exercise may be gender-dependent in such patients. However, higher-intensity or longer-duration exercises may help boost health in obese women with type 2 diabetes, a researcher said.

Participants who did 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week were more than twice as likely to develop metabolic syndrome than those who did 75 minutes of intense weekly exercise, a study in the International Journal of Epidemiology revealed. The results suggest that short, vigorous exercise sessions may have more health benefits than a longer, less intensive regime.

Any exercise is better than no exercise for older adults, according to guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine. Researchers emphasized, however, that the biggest benefits are seen when the amount of physical activity increases through higher intensity, greater frequency or longer duration.